A walking stick is an important tool for individuals, who are elderly or disabled, to move from place to place, and is also used to help stabilize a user when walking, hiking and climbing to reduce the burden of legs.
Generally, the conventional walking stick can be divided into two main types, the handheld walking cane and the underarm crutch. The handheld walking cane comprises a handle formed at an upper end thereof to provide a handhold for the user. When the walking cane is used, the user can hold the handle to compress a bottom tip of the walking cane against the floor, resulting in help stabilizing the user's standing or walking. On the other hand, the underarm crutch has an arc-shaped pad formed at an upper end thereof, so that the user can place his/her armpit against the arc-shaped pad. Also, a bottom tip formed at a lower end of the underarm crutch is configured to bear against the floor to achieve a support effect. Moreover, each of the two kinds of walking sticks has a rubber pad disposed on the bottom tip thereof to provide a buffering and shock-absorbing effect and to reduce the friction when the rubber makes contact with the floor, achieving a non-slip effect.
However, the conventional base structure for a walking stick is disadvantageous because: (i) because of the limitation in the thickness and shape of the rubber pad, the conventional base structure can only provide a limited swing amplitude and shock absorbing ability, which lowers the maneuverability of the walking stick; (ii) due to elastic fatigue, the rubber pad disposed on the conventional walking stick is easy to be damaged after a period of use, so that the rubber pad needs to be inspected and replaced frequently; and (iii) the conventional base structure for a walking stick is a kind of fixing structure which cannot be swung when it makes contact with the floor. Thus, the walking stick may be unable to stabilize a user when walking or climbing on tilted grounds, resulting in lowering the reliability and safety. Therefore, there remains a need for a new and improved design for a base structure for walking stick to overcome the problems presented above.